Is Your Mobile Website Ready for Enhanced Campaigns?

In an attempt to drag all of its advertisers into the new multiscreen reality, willingly or otherwise, Google recently announced the impending switch to Enhanced Campaigns. Ads in all campaigns will have the potential to run across all devices, so whether your prospective buyer is researching a car on a phone, tablet, or desktop, she may be served the same ad.

If your site isn’t flexible enough to take users directly to the page they want – regardless of the device they are shopping on – then it’s time to start tweaking your stylesheets. Otherwise, you risk wasting thousands on mobile and tablet users who bounce the moment they’re redirected to your homepage instead of the inventory, lease offers, or service coupons advertised.

What’s changing?

Along with disabling the ability to select which devices you want your campaigns to target, Google Enhanced Campaigns usher in greater flexibility in device preference, ad extensions, geographic targeting, and conversion optimization.

In legacy campaigns, AdWords set device targeting and ad extensions at the campaign level. So, all ads in a particular campaign were set to show on phones, tablets, desktops, or a combination thereof, all with the same sitelinks, phone number, or address extension attached. Enhanced Campaigns let you drill down and select devices and ad extensions in a much more granular manner.

Here’s an example of a new Enhanced Campaign in action:

A dealership is ramping up its Service Enhanced Campaign. During business hours, mobile users are served ads with copy boasting quick wait times, an address with one-click directions, and a click-to-call phone number. Desktop users see coupon-focused copy with a tracking phone number and expanded sitelinks to soft-sell service pages. Once the dealership closes, ads with links to service forms go live in place of the phone numbers.

Another big change arriving with Enhanced Campaigns is geographic bid adjustment. Dealerships can now boost bids in zip codes where they sell the most cars. Before, advertisers chose geographic targets for their ads at the campaign level, and you were forced to create different campaigns for every zone in which you wanted to have separate bids. With Enhanced Campaigns, you can easily adjust bids by location without having to create dozens of separate campaigns.

Here’s an example in action:

Browsing sales reports, a dealership sees that a significant number of their new vehicle sales are coming from users in select zip codes. Using bid adjustments in Enhanced Campaigns, the auto dealer can quickly and easily increase their bids by 50% for targeted keywords in that zip code, leading to a greater market share in an already receptive area, while decreasing bids in zips known to have a weaker return.

Four things dealers can do right now:

1. Ensure that you have Google Analytics installed on your site, and link your AdWords and Analytics so that you can measure the effectiveness of your ad traffic.

Before you begin upgrading your account, make sure that you know what’s happening with the traffic you’re paying for. If you’re not looking at what’s happening after a user clicks on your ad, then you’re flying half-blind.

Linking accounts is easy – just make sure you’re an administrator on both your AdWords and Analytics accounts, and you’re halfway there. Follow the instructions here to close the loop.

2. Make sure the destination URLs on ads for inventory or other deep links won’t redirect mobile users to the homepage.

If you have a responsive-mobile site – that is, a singular site for all devices that doesn’t redirect mobile users to a mobile.yourdealership.com or yourdealership.com/mobile/ version of your site – then you’re already ahead of the game.

Otherwise, contact your PPC provider and make sure that they create new Enhanced Campaign mobile ads with destination URLs that go right to the relevant page. Even if they have separate mobile campaigns right now, once they’re upgraded to Enhanced, those ads will show on any device.

3. Adjust bids based on location to make sure you dominate in zip codes you know have high sales numbers.

Take a look at your sales data over the last 12 months and send your PPC provider a list of the zip codes where you know you do well. Start with those locations, and concentrate on building out more sophisticated targeting in the future. Focus on areas aren’t ranking well Organically.

Upgraded call extensions on Enhanced Campaigns no longer charge $1 per call, so take advantage of that free call tracking by adding it to any ads where a phone number will make a difference. You can also set up conversion tracking through AdWords to register any call greater than a specific duration to count as a conversion. That extra data will help guide on where the call extensions are most effective.

Ralph Paglia

Larry Bruce

Jim Ziegler

OUR MISSION:

In today’s fiercely competitive retail environment, every dealership must be operating at maximum efficiency. Every profit center must be synergistically integrated with every other department in the dealership while, at the same time, producing their maximum profitability. Your only choices – Grow or Die.

Ralph Paglia, Larry Bruce, Jim Ziegler and Special Guest Speakers will demonstrate numerous techniques, word tracts, strategies and real life examples of dealerships that are dominating their competitors with technology-enabled marketing and Internet techniques and programs. This is hands-on ‘real-world stuff, not theory. We’re doing it in the real-world, in real dealerships, with real customers.

You and your managers will leave with a step-by-step “Battle Plan” that will dramatically increase your sales and profits… immediately.

If you have questions, or to register via telephone please call:

800.726.0510

Weekdays, 8AM – 5PM

YOUR TROOPS WILL LEARN:

How to Ensure that your Dealership doesn’t Waste a Single Opportunity to do Business

Jim Ziegler and Ralph Paglia Host Dealer Battle Plan Workshop in Atlantic City on July 6-8th

ATLANTA, June 2 — Top automotive industry trainer Jim Ziegler presents a dynamic workshop to help auto retailers meet online marketing challenges. Automobile retail sales are a fiercely competitive and erratic market. Ziegler’s plan is to give dealers an Internet Sales and Marketing Strategy to outperform the competition. This powerful event will be held at Bally’s Atlantic City, just minutes from the Philadelphia and New York City areas.

Change is constant. Nothing is the way it was, and will never be that way again. After working with thousands of automobile dealers over the years, Jim Ziegler needed to be sure his clients kept up with the new realities of changing technologies and the emerging influence of social media. So he assembled an all-star faculty for this dynamic event. All four presenters are world-class online retail practitioners. Their expertise and hands-on experience has shown they know what works and what doesn’t work in the online sales arena.

Workshop Instructors Ralph Paglia, Joe Webb and Tim Jennings have all been top-rated speakers at premier industry events and have managed both large and small InternetDepartments. When interviewed, Jim Ziegler smiled and said, “I’ve assembled a killer team for this event, combat tested veterans with more than four decades of in-the-trenches experience.”

Now, Ziegler and friends are delivering the real deal, content-rich sessions, hands-on “real-world stuff”, not theory. These tactics and processes are battle-tested on the front lines in dealerships all across the country.

Jim continued, “Dealerships can’t afford to miss a single opportunity to do business.” Having a dominant and effective presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other portals is critical to dealership marketing strategy. Ziegler and Paglia are masters of Social medium relationship sales and marketing. Students will take back an in-depth understanding of how to leverage online relationships for sales and profits as well as…

-- The pathway to success; from email, to telephone, to the appointment
to delivery
-- How to Maximize Existing Profit Centers and Create New Ones
-- How to use self-produced videos to capture customer trust and create
credibility
-- Focus sites, micro sites, and 12 other secrets to drive high-volume
traffic
-- Internet stealth marketing techniques with 'Ninja' Search Engine
Optimization
-- Marketing and Advertising with ultimate Video Search Engine
Maximization
-- How to turn your dealership into an Internet Sales Powerhouse
-- Customer Relationship Management and CSI Engineering Projects for High
Average Profitability, Top-Rated CSI Scores, Customer Retention and
Referrals!
-- YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter: How to profitize
relationships with consumers through customer-friendly "Pull
Marketing"
About :

Ziegler SuperSystems is an automotive training and consulting organization based in the Atlanta, GA area. President Jim Ziegler is a member of the National Speakers Association and has been a keynote speaker at National and State Dealer conventions, and has trained over 75,000 Dealers, GSMs, Sales and F&I Managers. Course and Training information is at: http://zieglersupersystems.com/ Jim can be reached at: 800-726-0510

ATLANTA, June 2 /PRNewswire/ — Top automotive industry trainer Jim Ziegler and automotive digital marketing expert Ralph Paglia present a dynamic workshop to help auto retailers meet online marketing challenges. Automobile retail sales are a fiercely competitive and erratic market. Ziegler and Paglia’s plan is to give dealers an Internet Sales and Marketing Strategy to outperform the competition by gaining unfair competitive advantage on the web. This powerful event will be held at Bally’s Atlantic City, just minutes from the Philadelphia and New York City areas.

Change is constant. Nothing is the way it was, and will never be that way again. After working with thousands of automobile dealers over the years, Jim Ziegler needed to be sure his clients kept up with the new realities of changing technologies and the emerging influence of social media. So he assembled an all-star faculty for this dynamic event. All four presenters are world-class online retail practitioners. Their expertise and hands-on experience has shown they know what works and what doesn’t work in the online sales arena.

When interviewed, Jim Ziegler smiled and said, “I’ve assembled a killer team for this event, combat tested veterans with more than four decades of in-the-trenches experience.”

When asked about his success in selling over 4,000 cars via the web in calendar year 2006 while working as Internet Director at Courtesy Chevrolet in Phoenix, Ralph Paglia smiled and responded, “Our team in Phoenix was able to do that because we went to war on the web with several unfair competitive advantages… As other dealers caught on, copied what we were doing, we continued to launch barrage after barrage of web initiatives that kept us ahead in the market by seizing and controlling car buyer mindshare…”

The well known Automotive Digital Marketing guru, Ralph Paglia, went on to say that he will deliver; “…several strategic and tactical “How To’s” that will not be for the weak or timid dealer because they are the web equivalent of “going nuclear” on a dealer’s local competition.”

Ralph Paglia stated, “Dealers with a weak stomach for hyper-competitive tactics such as driving traffic from their competitor’s lots and showrooms using mobile web apps and text messaging may find some of my more aggressive tactics as being a little over the top… But, by learning my Web Ninja Sales tactics they will at least be able to recognize and know when other dealers are using these aggressive techniques to steal business from their dealership before it is too late to defend themselves!”

At Bally’s Resort in Atlantic City, NJ on July 6 through July 8, Jim Ziegler and Ralph Paglia will deliver the real deal, content-rich sessions, hands-on “real-world stuff”, not theory. Attendees will leave this 3 day workshop with the know-how to deploy the tactics and processes that are battle-tested and proven effective on the front lines in the most successful dealerships throughout North America.

Jim Ziegler advise all dealers to take action NOW; “Dealerships can’t afford to miss a single opportunity to do business… You MUST register and attend this Dealer Internet Battle Plan Workshop with your key managers or risk getting blown out of the market by your competition which is preparing THEIR Internet Battle Plan as you are reading these words!””

Having a dominant and effective presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other portals is critical to dealership marketing strategy. Ziegler and Paglia are masters of the Social Web and using this incredibly popular medium to generate relationship based sales and to achieve dealer marketing objectives. Dealer Internet Battle Plan Workshop participants will take back materials, hand-outs, CD’s, top secret user names and passwords along with an in-depth understanding of how to leverage online relationships for sales and profits.

Jim Ziegler and Ralph Paglia have each personally committed themselves to delivering workshop attendees a thorough understanding and ability to leverage the following…

How to implement “pathway to success”; email to telephone, phone to showroom, appointment to delivery

YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter: How to profitize social media through customer-friendly “Pull Marketing”

Using little known but powerful web apps to divert OEM traffic to dealership websites

Receive individual passwords and authorized access to restricted file servers with hundreds of proven effective email templates, phone scripts, reporting spreadsheets, How To PPT files, performance metrics from top dealers, Internet Dept. Workflow process maps, business plans and other content too valuable to make openly available on the Internet!*

Ziegler SuperSystems is an automotive training and consulting organization based in the Atlanta, GA area. President Jim Ziegleris a member of the National Speakers Association and has been a keynote speaker at National and State Dealer conventions, and has trained over 75,000 Dealers, GSMs, Sales and F&I Managers. Course and Training information is at:http://zieglersupersystems.com/ Jim can be reached at: 800-726-0510

“The Internet has indeed become an integral part of consumers’ local commercial activity,” said Steve Marshall, director of research, BIA/Kelsey, in a statement. “The data suggest we’re at an inflection point where the balance of power in local shopping is shifting to online.”

Over time, the researchers have noted an increase in the number of sources used for local shopping research, suggesting audience fragmentation that can be challenging for advertisers.

“These challenges may be outweighed by the targeting opportunities available with tools like coupon promotions and appointment scheduling, the latter being among the best lead sources possible, since you know where people are actually going,” said Peter Krasilovsky, vice president and program director, Marketplaces, BIA/Kelsey, in a statement.

According to the report, 58% of respondents said they had redeemed an online coupon when shopping locally in the past year, and 19% made a local appointment other than a restaurant reservation on the Web.

As Google continues to glean display advertising expertise through their acquisition of DoubleClick, the hits just keep on coming… Google has added several MORE new features to the Google AdWords display ad builder recently launched in September 2008. Dealers and their Managers can use these new capabilities to easily create and self-administer their website targeted display advertising placements… Google says that there most recent upgrades to the Adwords display ad creator application are based on user feedback, but I personally suspect some of the DoubleClick gang at work. Google has increased functionality in a way that provides greater dealer customization capabilities and even makes building website display ads easier.

For example, the new image picker feature lets dealers choose from a library of previously uploaded images, such as dealership and brand logos, when creating new ads. I especially like the real-time editing display that lets users see ad copy and text, along with any other custom edits without having to repeatedly click the “update preview” button.

The Google Adwords display ad builder updates give dealers a quicker way of seeing the various sizes the ad can run in each ad template without having to complete the ad creation process. There is a preview mode that provides a view of how customization choices affect each size. The tool also offers additional website display advertising templates. Dealers can get started right away with website and geotargeted local display advertising by entering their offer or promotional text, uploading vehicle images, brand badges and dealership logos. Dealers can then select their favorite ad format from more than 40 professionally designed display advertising templates.

In fact, these new Google Adwords display advertising capabilities make it exceptionally easy to quickly create ads with different offers and then run A-B testing to see which offer has more appeal to car buyers by simply comparing click-through rates from the same websites. One of the more enlightening insights I was able to see in a matter of one week was that some offers that work better on certain types of websites, actually underperform on other sites. For example, special lease offers seem to work well on financial news sites, whereas an offer for free upgrade to 22″ Wheels and low profile tires out-pulled the lease payment offer on enthusiast sites.

All of this brings to the forefront another advantage of digital advertising versus offline advertising… The ability to target the right message to the right audience at the right time in their online research process.

The Automotive Digital Marketing (ADM) Professional Community website is built on a perpetually expandable “Viral Expansion Loop” Networking Platform and serves Car Dealers and their management teams, including Internet Sales Managers, BDC Managers, Marketing Managers and Sales Managers. ADM is also a proven resource for OEM Interactive Media and eBusiness Managers who want to see, hear and read what the best Digital and Interactive Marketing professionals in the automotive industry have to say about relevant and timely topics. ADM is a great place for Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 Automotive Advertising Practitioners, as well as Web Site Managers, automotive software Developers and Solution Designers to get new ideas and stay up to date. ADM also serves Automotive CRM and Lead Management Tool developers and their sales professionals as an online exchange for strategy, tactics, best practices, files, resources and contacts within the auto industry.

– Currently, ADM has over 1,600 active members
– There have been over 3,800 photos uploaded and available for use by members
– There have been over 520 music tracks uploaded
– Members have uploaded over 630 videos to share
– There have been over 340 discussions started and ongoing
– Members have created more than 460 blog posts within their ADM provided blog space

https://www.youtube.com/richiebello.com-fine-cigar-event-buffet Attention all auto dealers, general managers, and sales managers! You are invited to Richie Bello’s Cigar Dinner at the Beach Club Estate on May 9th, from 6-10pm! There will be an exclusive buffet, complimentary cigars by Village Cigar Headquarters, and a cash bar! This is a great opportunity fo […]

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